1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for archiving medical data in storage modules of different kinds.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Over the past years, the volume of medical data that has to be stored and archived in clinical institutions or hospitals has massively increased. In conventional systems, the data stream or the medical data is supported and managed by a picture and archive communication system, also known as “PACS”. A PACS can handle and organize data streams from various modalities for medical examination as for example, computer assisted tomographs, mammographic apparatus, endoscopic apparatus, magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, radiographic apparatus, ultrasonographic apparatus, position emission tomographs (PET) and similar.
During a patient examination, for instance, digital data (medical images) taken by a modality are deposited, i.e., saved in a short time storage module of the PACS. The short time storage module of the PACS provides a fast storage medium, and thus a fast access to save and store the data.
Then, a copy of the stored spate of medical images can be transferred from the short time storage module of the PACS to workstation or personal computers of physicians who need such information for further therapies, diagnoses, etc. of the patient. The image data is retransferred to the short time storage module, if the physician has manipulated the image data.
After a period of time, the stored data is then transferred from the short time storage module to a long time storage module of the PACS. The long time storage module often has a slow storage medium (for example a magnetic tape) with slow access possibilities for storing and re-accessing the data. After the transfer of medical data has completed, the data in the short time storage module is deleted after a period of time or if the storage medium of the short time storage module has reached its maximum storage capacity.
With respect to managing the electronic medical data, the use of a PACS known from the prior art within for example, a clinical institution, is not economic, efficient and not optimal. The medical data that has to be stored is not managed dynamically, i.e., there is no configurable and modifiable method of archiving and storing medical data according to which, for example, properties of the medical data determine the further process of storage, access or the examination as such in dependence of configurable rules and/or parameters.
For example, if the level of a specific storage volume, i.e., the maximum storage capacity of the short time storage module is reached, then sets of stored data that are older than a predefined number of days, are deleted from the short time storage module. However, the needs of clients show that some medical data can be deleted earlier from the expensive, useful and limited short time storage module, because the medical data depends on several characteristics or parameters such as modality, clinical picture of the patient, physician, etc. The medical data does not comprise any parameter that controls the further handling and storing of the data. There is also no known possibility to assign such a parameter to medical data, for example, to a medical image file.
Presently, all instances of digital medical image data are rigidly archived according to a static archiving concept. For example, images are archived in the long time storage module for N years until they are deleted. However, it is not necessary that all medical data is stored and archived for N years. The time spans for which medical data are archived, differ. Some types of images need to be stored longer than others, depending on various factors. Consequently, medical data should be stored, for example, in dependence on its medical importance, its modality, etc. Unfortunately, in present systems, this high degree of configurability of the archiving concept, as mentioned above, has not been implemented.
A further problem is to be seen in the large amount of medical data that is produced by the medical modalities, because the storage capacity of both the short time storage modules and the long time storage modules are limited. The access to medical data stored in the long time storage module with slow access is often time-consuming and cumbersome.
Consequently, there it would be helpful to provide an improved method and apparatus for archiving and/or storing and accessing medical data in the storage modules of different kind.